The whelp of both these lay

In Abel's tent, and with soft Moaba,

His sister, being young, it used to sport and play.

 

45

 

He soon for her too harsh, and churlish grew,

And Abel (the dam dead) would use this new

For the field. Being of two kinds thus made,

He, as his dam, from sheep drove wolves away,

And as his sire, he made them his own prey.

Five years he lived, and cozened with his trade,

Then hopeless that his faults were hid, betrayed

Himself by flight, and by all followed,

From dogs, a wolf; from wolves, a dog he fled;

And, like a spy to both sides false, he perished.

 

46

 

It quickened next a toyful ape, and so

Gamesome it was, that it might freely go

From tent to tent, and with the children play,

His organs now so like theirs he doth find,

That why he cannot laugh, and speak his mind,

He wonders. Much with all, most he doth stay

With Adam's fifth daughter Siphatecia,

Doth gaze on her, and, where she passeth, pass,

Gathers her fruits, and tumbles on the grass,

And wisest of that kind, the first true lover was.

 

47

 

He was the first that more desired to have

One than another; first that e'er did crave

Love by mute signs, and had no power to speak;

First that could make love faces, or could do

The vaulter's somersaults, or used to woo

With hoiting gambols, his own bones to break

To make his mistress merry; or to wreak

Her anger on himself. Sins against kind

They easily do, that can let feed their mind

With outward beauty, beauty they in boys and beasts do find.

 

48

 

By this misled, too low things men have proved,

And too high; beasts and angels have been loved;

This ape, though else through-vain, in this was wise,

He reached at things too high, but open way

There was, and he knew not she would say nay;

His toys prevail not, likelier means he tries,

He gazeth on her face with tear-shot eyes,

And up lifts subtly with his russet paw

Her kidskin apron without fear or awe

Of Nature; Nature hath no gaol, though she have law.

 

49

 

First she was silly and knew not what he meant,

That virtue, by his touches, chafed and spent,

Succeeds an itchy warmth, that melts her quite,

She knew not first, now cares not what he doth,

And willing half and more, more than half loth,

She neither pulls nor pushes, but outright

Now cries, and now repents; when Tethlemite

Her brother, entered, and a great stone threw

After the ape, who, thus prevented, flew.

This house thus battered down, the soul possessed a new.

 

50

 

And whether by this change she lose or win,

She comes out next, where the ape would have gone in.

Adam and Eve had mingled bloods, and now

Like chemics' equal fires, her temperate womb

Had stewed and formed it: and part did become

A spongy liver, that did richly allow,

Like a free conduit, on a high hill's brow,

Life-keeping moisture unto every part,

Part hardened itself to a thicker heart,

Whose busy furnaces life's spirits do impart.

 

51

 

Another part became the well of sense,

The tender well-armed feeling brain, from whence,

Those sinewy strings which do our bodies tie,

Are ravelled out, and fast there by one end,

Did this soul limbs, these limbs a soul attend,

And now they joined: keeping some quality

Of every past shape, she knew treachery,

Rapine, deceit, and lust, and ills enow

To be a woman. Themech she is now,

Sister and wife to Cain, Cain that first did plough.

 

52

 

Whoe'er thou be'st that read'st this sullen writ,

Which just so much courts thee, as thou dost it,

Let me arrest thy thoughts, wonder with me,

Why plowing, building, ruling and the rest,

Or most of those arts, whence our lives are blessed,

By cursed Cain's race invented be,

And blessed Seth vexed us with astronomy.

There's nothing simply good, nor ill alone,

Of every quality comparison,

The only measure is, and judge, opinion.

 

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